Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) is an open industrial standard architecture formulated and developed by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufactures Group (PICMG). It is universal hardware platform technology of communication devices and computer servers. Communication devices and computer servers that meet various needs can be constructed according to various ATCA-based modules. Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MicroTCA) is a small universal telecom and computing hardware platform technology formulated by the PICMG. The MicroTCA uses an AMC to construct a system, and a hot-swappable AMC may be inserted into the backplane of the MicroTCA directly. The MicroTCA is oriented to low- and mid-end telecom or computing applications which are sensitive to costs and require a small physical size.
FIG. 1 shows a structure of a power supply system of an AMC module in a MicroTCA system in the prior art. The power supply system 100 includes at least one AMC module 140, a MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) 110, a power module 130, and a backplane 120. Each AMC module includes a Module Management Controller (MMC) 141 and a load circuit 142.
In the system shown in FIG. 1, each AMC sends an in-position signal to the Enhanced Module Management Controller (EMMC) of the power module, and declares the in-position state of the AMC module 140 according to the in-position signal. The MCH 110 is a switching and control center of the MicroTCA, and the MCH 110 controls and manages other modules of the MicroTCA system according to an Intelligent Platform Management Bus (IPMB). A MicroTCA Carrier Management Controller (MCMC) 111 of the MCH 110 in FIG. 1 is connected to the MMC 141 of the AMC module 140 according to an IPMB-L bus for managing and controlling the AMC module 140; the MCMC 111 is connected to a EMMC 131 according to an IPMB-0 bus for managing and controlling the power supply 130. The power module 130 includes a power converting module 132, an EMMC 131 and an AMC power control circuit module 133 which controls the power supply of the AMC module 140. A quantity of the AMC power control circuit modules 133 corresponds to a quantity of the AMCs. A power converting module 132 receives input of external power supply, and outputs converted power supply to the AMC power control circuit module 133. The AMC power control circuit module 133 includes a load power control circuit 135 and a management power control circuit 134, which receive load power supply and management power supply output by the power converting module 132 respectively, and output the load power supply and the management power supply to the MMC 141 and the load circuit 142 of the AMC module 140 respectively under control of the load power control signal and management power control signal output by the EMMC 131.
The process of controlling the power supply of the AMC module according to a system shown in FIG. 1 includes: controlling the power supply of the AMC module in the process of plugging and unplugging the AMC module.
During the management and control for the power supply of the AMC module 140 which is being plugged, the EMMC 131 needs to enable the management power supply control signal of the corresponding AMC power control circuit module 133 when receiving a command from the MCMC 111 which requires provision of management power supply of the AMC module 140, so that the management power supply control circuit 134 enables the output of the management power supply. After receiving a command from the MCMC 111 which provides the load power supply to the AMC module 140, the EMMC 131 needs to enable the load power supply control signal of the corresponding AMC power control circuit module 133, so that the load power control circuit 135 can enable output of the load power supply and output power supply to the load circuit 142 of the AMC module 140.
During the management and control for the power supply of an AMC module 140 which is being unplugged, the EMMC 131 needs to disable the load power supply control signal of the corresponding AMC power control circuit module 133 when receiving a command which requires shutdown of load power supply to the AMC module 140, so as to control the load power control circuit 135 of the power module 130 to disable the load power output. After detecting that the AMC module 140 is unplugged, the EMMC 131 needs to disable the management power control signal of the corresponding AMC power control circuit module 133, so as to control the management power control circuit 134 to shut down output of the management power supply.
As described above, the AMC module in the prior art does not involve the management and control circuit of the power supply. In order to make the SMC module hot-swappable, a control circuit must be set on the power supply to manage the power supply of each AMC module. Therefore, the power supply to the AMC module can only adopt a star topology. However, the design of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) of a star topology is rather difficult. Meanwhile, if a control circuit board is set for each AMC module in the power module, the power module is more complex and less reliable.
Regarding the management on power supply to the AMC module, the prior art manages the power supply to the AMC module in a complex process which requires interaction between multiple modules such as the AMC module, the MCH and the power module. Consequently, the software is more complex and less reliable.